Anecdotal recall : The Contra playing incident
Ages and echelons have passed since this anecdotal incident, but it still lives fresh in my memory. I think it was around 1992, during the summer holidays, when Gaurav @Gaurav Khandelwal and I made a secret getaway to the Mina Market near B Block of Indira Nagar to have some fun playing the erstwhile superhit video game "Contra". Life's fun quotient in those times, as we may all recall, was just about sneaking into video gaming parlours. We'd sit before a big belly picturetube TV, holding a remote, perched on a leg-height pedestal stool. It cost a small fortune—Rs 5 per hour—to play. The game, being as absorbing as it was, went on for a couple of hours, maybe two or three. But the real drama, which still lingers in my memory, wasn't in the game, but in the aftermath. We parted ways, each heading home. As I entered mine, my mother was sitting, looking furious about where I'd been for so long. Unable to tell her the truth for fear of a worse scolding, I trie...